How to Evaluate a Used Skydiving Rig Before You Buy

Buying your first rig is one of the more stressful purchases you'll make. The used market is full of listings that look pristine in photos and hide problems that'll ruin your season — or worse, buy you a reserve ride you could've avoided.

A professional rigger inspection is mandatory — and legally required for reserves in the US every 180 days — but you should still know how to spot the red flags sellers don't always volunteer yourself before you even get there. Wiring $4,000 to a stranger for a rig with corroded grommets, a shrunk line set, or an expired AAD is a mess you can avoid entirely.

Here's the step-by-step checklist for evaluating a used complete rig before you close the deal.

1. The Harness and Container: The Foundation of Safety

The container holds your life-saving devices; the harness is what keeps you attached to them. A failure here is catastrophic.

Inspecting the Webbing and Stitching

Lay the container flat on a clean packing mat and run your hands along the main lift web, the leg straps, and the chest strap.

• Fraying: fuzzy, broken nylon fibers. Light cosmetic fuzz from Velcro is normal; any deep abrasion into the structural weave is an immediate reject.
• Stitching: check the high-stress junctions — the 3-ring attachment points, the harness junctions at shoulders and hips — for broken threads, loose stitching, or amateur repairs. Rigs are sewn on industrial machines with heavy-duty nylon thread, usually Size E or F. Hand-sewing anywhere on structural webbing is a major red flag.

Hardware and Grommets

Check the leg strap buckles, chest strap buckle, and D-rings.

• Corrosion: rust is a dealbreaker, full stop. Coastal DZs accelerate salt-water corrosion, so check the underside of buckles where sweat collects.
• Grommets: every grommet on the container flaps should sit perfectly round and tight against the fabric, with no rough edges or cracks. A loose or distorted grommet can catch a line during deployment.

The 3-Ring Release System

Your primary safety mechanism, and it has to be perfect. The three rings should be round, rust-free, and sit flat against each other. The yellow cutaway cable housing should be clean, with the Teflon-coated cables sliding smoothly — a sticky release cable is the last thing you want during an actual cutaway.

2. The Main Canopy: Where the Wear and Tear Lives

The main takes the abuse on every jump. Fabric degrades, lines shrink, seams stretch.

Fabric Strength and Porosity

Most modern canopies use Zero-Porosity fabric, built to hold air for consistent openings and strong flares. Fresh ZP feels crisp and slightly crinkly, like a new banknote; worn-out ZP feels soft and thin, closer to cotton. Soft and heavy fabric means the canopy's near the end of its life. Sun exposure is the quiet killer here — ask how many sunset loads or open-air packing sessions it's seen, and treat faded color as a sign of UV degradation.

Seams, Ribs, and Crossports

Open the canopy fully on a table or clean floor and go cell by cell across top and bottom skins, checking for small tears, pinholes (grass and sticks do this), and burn marks from sliding pack jobs. Look inside the cells too — ruptured crossports (the holes that let air move sideways between ribs) from hard openings are expensive to fix and change how the canopy flies.

The Line Set and Trim

• Line type: Microline (Spectra) is tough but shrinks over time from slider heat. Vectran and HMA don't shrink but degrade silently from UV and wear, and need replacing every 300–500 jumps. Dacron is thick and bulky, mostly on student or CRW rigs.
• Trim: front lines (A and B) stretch, or rear lines (C and D) shrink, and the canopy goes "out of trim" — sluggish openings, weaker flares, more tendency to hunt for a stall. Measure line lengths against the manufacturer's trim chart when you can. Planning to size down on this canopy? Read our downsizing guide before committing to a smaller wing.

3. The Reserve Canopy: The Last Line of Defense

You only use it when the day's already going badly, so it needs to be flawless.

The Reserve Card and History

Every reserve has a Reserve Packing Data Card — the legal diary of that canopy. Match the serial number on the fabric to the card exactly, count repacks and deployments, and remember: US reserves must be inspected and repacked by an FAA-certified rigger every 180 days regardless of use. Most manufacturers, Performance Designs included, cap reserve age or deployment count — typically 20–40 repacks or 25 jumps — before it has to go back to the factory for testing. Don't buy one already at that limit.

Fabric and Lines

Check reserve fabric for acid mesh damage — some reserves built in the late 1990s and early 2000s used mesh that degrades the surrounding nylon. Only a certified rigger's tensile strength test can confirm it's safe.

4. The Automatic Activation Device (AAD): The Silent Guardian

The AAD fires a cutter on your reserve closing loop if you're still at freefall speed below a set altitude — typically 780–840 feet on sport settings.

Lifespan and Service Intervals

• Cypres 2: older units (pre-September 2015) carry a 12.5-year lifespan with mandatory 4-year and 8-year factory maintenance. Newer units run 15.5 years with voluntary maintenance cycles.
• Vigil 2 / Vigil Cuatro: 20-year lifespan, no mandatory factory service, but the battery needs replacing every 10 years or per the firmware prompts.
• Do the math: a used Cypres with a year left on the clock is worth almost nothing, no matter how well it runs today. Price the remaining life into your offer, not as an afterthought.

The Rig That Passes Every Check Is Still Not Optional

None of this replaces the rigger inspection — it's what lets you walk into that inspection knowing roughly what you're looking at, instead of hoping the seller's photos told the whole story. A rig that fails one of these checks isn't automatically a scam; sometimes it's just priced for the work it needs. What's not negotiable is buying blind.

Looking for Verified Gear?

Every listing on HornyGorilla passes a certified rigger inspection before it goes live. You don't have to guess whether the lines are shrunk or the grommets are loose. Buy with confidence.

→ Browse Inspected Rigs on HornyGorilla

Checked against USPA SIM § 5-3, FAA 14 CFR Parts 65 and 105, the UPT Vector 3 Manual §3, and the Cypres 2 User Manual §8.